Army Number Block Allocations

Discussion in 'Service Records' started by Geoff Reeves, Jan 12, 2006.

  1. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Is it possible that your man was also involved in WW1 - late on that is

    TD
     
  2. GoldmanT

    GoldmanT Member

    It would have to have been very late, he was only born in 1915!

    I'll start another thread as this one is straying away from the number alloications and I do have a few further questions which people seem keen to help with.
    RAMC 31 Company, 1935-1945ish - Medal Roll: India General Service Medal
     
  3. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

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  4. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

    I don't have many RAMC noted

    7254262 Kiernan enlisted 16th Jul 1929
    7262556 King enlisted 1st Oct 1934
    7263583 Weston enlisted 6th Jan 1937
     
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  5. GoldmanT

    GoldmanT Member

    Thank you for this.

    Just through brute force Googling I found 7261599, which is only 37 digits before the one I'm looking for - indicates that this soldier enlisted in June 1932, am I reading that right? I'll try to find reference to a later number to see if it tallies up.

    There were some closer numbers but they were all officers which I believe would have had a different numbering system, or have I misunderstood that?

    7261599.PNG

    Original link: https://www.fepow.org/uploads/4/3/1/3/4313799/final_saigon_party_database_optimised.pdf
     
  6. GoldmanT

    GoldmanT Member

    And maybe not a 100% reliable source, but a genealogy file probably transcribed from service records show 7261676 (+40) enlisting in August 1932, which tallies with the other information. So, summer 1932.

    Christopher-J-Collings - User Trees - Genealogy.com
     
  7. neilisju

    neilisju Member

    Hello,
    i recently found service number.
    Howard G
    14009561
    but cannot find an attribution.
    can someone help on this?
    tku
     
  8. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    It does seem to fall in a gap, I have 3 numbers in that range - all are mid to late 1945 enlistments - I'd guess your man is March/April 1945 but can't be sure and not sure on unit either
     
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  9. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    Could you double check the number or, better still, post a copy of the document you are taking the information from?
     
  10. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

    14009561 enlisted 28th March 1945
     
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  11. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    Any idea which unit he enlisted into? its not in any of the defined bands?
     
  12. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    knock off the first 1 it comes up Welch Regiment
    knock of the last 1 it comes up Royal Artillery
     
  13. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    As mentioned above, numbers definitely exist within this no-mans land

    975 cartwright2.jpg 1277 horn.JPG 1325 CURTIS.JPG
     
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  14. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

    It's a block within the 14005001 - 14200000 block allocated to the GSC in 1942 but was not used until 14th March 1945. The earliest I have noted is 14005152 Yates enlisted 14th March 1945.

    There were also small blocks within this block that were used earlier e.g. 14194901-14197400 for Danish enlistments.

    I have over 200,000 British Army enlistment dates recorded from 1920 to 1952. I have enough data to determine an enlistment date for soldiers with numbers commencing 14xxxxxx (and post war 19xxxxxx, 21xxxxxx less Gurkhas and 22xxxxxx numbers).
     
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  15. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

    14010846 Cartwright enlisted 11th April 1945
    14075984 Horn enlisted 4th October 1945
    14087438 Curtis enlisted 1st November 1945
     
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  16. AB64

    AB64 Senior Member

    Cheers, its odd that the block isn't included in the list in Kings Regs updated in 1945 - 200,000 is impressive, I thought I was doing well with a list of just over 1,000 with dates

    Horn was 18/10/45 though rather than 4th, the other 2 match
     
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  17. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

    Thanks for Horn. Alternate Thursdays..... there are overlaps in the blocks.

    From Feb 1942 all army recruits were enlisted into the General Service Corps and were processed in huge batches every fortnight. Army numbers were usually allocated on alternate Thursdays (the first number being 14200001 allocated on Thursday 12th Feb 1942). This is how the process worked. The recruit received an enlistment notice under the National Service (Armed Forces) Acts 1939, 1940, instructing him to report to a Primary Training Centre or Primary Training Wing. The enlistment notice quoted the recruit’s alpha numeric registration number from his Certificate of Registration under the Acts. Examples of recruit registration numbers are GHB1236, LSN2731 and PRF3524. To further complicate things, these registration numbers were tri service. If you Google images "National Service Enlistment Notice" quite a few examples appear.

    For Army recruits the reporting date for most PTCs/PTWs was a Thursday (but there was at least one operating for a period on alternate Mondays), and the recruit would be given his number on that first day. The army numbers were allocated to PTCs/PTWs in advance and were cross referenced to the recruit registration numbers. Occasionally a recruit would report late or there would be a medical (an injury, the recruit having passed a medical some weeks before the enlistment notice was issued) or administrative issue with a recruit which would delay the issue of his number to a subsequent weekday, usually Tuesday, but this applies in less than 5% of cases.

    As you can imagine, the Ministry of Labour and National Service Central Office in London had an army of clerks corresponding with the Ministry of Labour and National Service Regional Offices who in turn corresponded with twenty-six PTCs/PTWs (and the RAF and RN equivalents), all without the aid of IT systems and email. They worked with blocks of numbers so there was inevitably some overlap of the fortnightly recruiting periods. I am currently compiling the reporting dates for the Feb 1942 – July 1947 period with the lowest and highest numbers I have recorded for each date.

    Lockdowns. What else will I do with my time....
     
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  18. Mr Jinks

    Mr Jinks Bit of a Cad

    14000000- onwards were originally allocated for use with the General Service Corps however it was found that earlier numbers had already been allocated . The Highland Regiment ended at 14005000 .
    14005001- 14200000 were termed odd numbers over (The Highland Regiment block) and odd numbers under (The General Service Corps) and allocated once 15000000 had been reached (as 15000001-15005000 had already been allocated to Indian and Native units . These numbers were used for transferees from one service to another in 1945 . Men transferred from (ie)from the RAF to the Army had their RAF numbers replaced by "Army" numbers from these over and under number blocks . Anyway the enlistment book example I have posted should explain better than me :wacko:

    • Intelligence Corps 10350001 - 10400000
    • Reconnaissance Corps 10600001 - 10630000
    • Army Catering Corps (from 1941) 10630001 - 10655000
    • Army Physical Training Corps 10655001 - 10660000
    • Royal Pioneer Corps 13000001 - 14000000
    • The Lowland Regiment 14000001 - 14002500
    • The Highland Regiment 14002501 - 14005000
    • General Service Corps 14200001 - 15000000
    • Indian local enlistments 15000001 - 15005000

    • Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers 16000001 - 16100000
    • Non-Combatant Corps 97000001 - 97100000
    • Auxiliary Territorial Service W/1 - W/500,000
    • Voluntary Aid Detachments W/500001 - W/1000000
    S2_GBM_ROYALWELSHFUSILIERS_TRANSFERINREGISTERS1920-1946_BOOK14_0003.jpg

    Kyle
     
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  19. Gelert

    Gelert Active Member

    14,000,001 to 14,002,500 was allocated to The Lowland Regiment/Division. The Lowland Cap Badges were:

    · The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment) - Example 14000029
    · The Royal Scots Fusiliers - Example 14000046
    · The King's Own Scottish Borderers - Example 14000177
    · The Cameronians (Scottish Rifles) - Example 14000049

    14,002,501 to 14,005,000 allocated to the Highland Regiment/Division. The Highland Cap Badges were:

    · The Black Watch (Royal Highland Regiment) - Example 14002611
    · The Highland Light Infantry (City of Glasgow Regiment) - Example 14002690
    · The Seaforth Highlanders (Ross-shire Buffs, The Duke of Albany's) - Example 14002697
    · The Gordon Highlanders - Example 14002896
    · The Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders - Example 14002895
    · The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (Princess Louise's) - Example 14002774

    14,200,001 to 14,500,000 allocated to GSC

    14,500,001 to 14,505,000 allocated to Middle East Enlistments

    14,505,001 to 15,000,000 allocated to the General Service Corps (block used from 7th Jan 1943, 14997903 enlisted 31st Aug 1944)

    15,000,001 to 15,005,000 - India local enlistments (into the British Army not Indian Army)

    16,000,001 to 16,100,000 - REME (Middle East enlistments 16,001,531 - 16,001,580)

    17,000,001 to 17,000,300 BAOR local enlistments (mostly into RASC)

    17,000,301 to 17,000,500 Central Mediterranean Forces local enlistments in Italy. Quite a few Maltese in this block (again, mostly into RASC)

    17,000,501 to 17,001,000 Middle East Land Forces local enlistments

    18,000,001 to 18,265,000 - Colonies and dependencies in 27 blocks
     
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  20. neilisju

    neilisju Member

    Tku guys for all the informations, ive learned plenty.
    My last question, is there a database that would indicate when a soldier joined during ww2 based on his service number?
     
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